An independent arbitrator has ruled that The Washington Post must reinstate columnist Karen Attiah with backpay and benefits, concluding that her firing violated a collective bargaining agreement, the union and legal team representing her said on Monday.
In September, Attiah said that she was terminated over social media posts in the aftermath of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“This decision confirms what we’ve said from the start: I was doing my job as an opinion journalist, and doing that job is not misconduct,” Attiah said in a statement.
A Washington Post spokesperson said that they respect the the arbitration process, but declined to comment further.
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Attiah was a member of the Post Guild and covered by its collective bargaining agreement. Per the guild, she could only be terminated as the “result of progressive discipline” or if it rose to the level of “gross misconduct.”
A couple of hours after the shooting of Kirk, Attiah posted on social media, “I wish I had hope for gun control and that I could believe ‘political violence has no place in this country.’ But we live in a country that accepts white children being massacred by gun violence. Not just accepts, but worships violence.”
“Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence…Again. I don’t care for empty rhetoric.”
She also posted one of Kirk’s quotes, that “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.” Social media has been rife with claims of what Kirk has said in the past, but Snopes rated the Black women quote, from a podcast in 2023, as true.
Attiah continued to post in the days after the assassination, defending what she wrote.
At the time of her firing, the Post declined to comment on personnel matters. The Post has pointed to its policies and standards, including its social media policy.
The guild contended that Attiah’s firing was pretextual, and that she was being penalized for speech that fell within her job description. Attiah was the last full-time Black opinion columnist at the publication.
Post Guild Chair Natalie Vineberg said in a statement, “Journalists can’t work at an organization where they must live in fear of being arbitrarily fired for doing their jobs — which, in Karen’s case, was writing her opinion.” The New York Times first reported on Attiah’s reinstatement. The guild defended Attiah in arbitration, with support from the Democracy Defenders Fund.
Attiah joined the Post in 2014 and served for a period as global opinions editor. She was a prominent voice speaking out on the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi by agents of the Saudi regime.
